Acoustic Guitar Buildalong.

[Bucksnort101]

Been threatening to build a guitar for many years now. Project started this spring and was put on hold for the Summer/Fall. Hope to have it finished by spring and will post pictures of my progress along the way.

Guitar is being build from a kit, sides are pre-bend, top, bottom, neck and other parts are roughly cut to shape but need to be finished and glued up. Definately a project that will challenge me and hopefully end up with a playable instrument.

I'll post the first picture a little later this evening or tomorrow depending on the status of the cameras batteries.

 

[Screaming Eagle]

looking forward to it buck!

 

[109ROAMING]

Me too!

 

[Bucksnort101]

OK, here are the first pics. Body, back, and neck will be made of Mahogany. Top (Soundboard) will be Sitka Spruce.

Here are the rims (sides) glued together with the neck and tail blocks glued in place. Discoloration on the rims is just waterstains from the bending process, it will be sanded out later. Cardboard tamplate was used to keep the guitar in it's proper shape and the U shaped brace hold the waist of the guitar up tight against the cardboard form.
Kerfing is also glued in place along the top and bottom edgeing which will provide a surface for the top and bottom plate to glue in place.

Next up is making a boat load of clamps and gluing up the braces to the top and back plates.

 

[ccheese]

Not much into musical instruments. Looks like it might be fun.

Good luck with the project [read: don't let it die !]

Charles

 

[Bucksnort101]

I'll try to stay on top of things with the build, but don't be suprised if a couple weeks may pass between updates. I'v generally got too many projects going on at the same time (who doesn't) and sometime one project will suffer for working on another.
I'm going to try to get a half dozen or so Wooden Cam Clamps build this weekend as they are needed for the next step. I do need to track down someone with a tablesaw to make the clamp building easier and quicker.

 

[Heinz]

Rosewood or ebony fretboard?

Judging from the size its a folk steel string yeah?

Basic 6 string or 12?
Doing very well mate, I've considering doing a custom Explorer a few years back, still might.

Great work

 

[Bucksnort101]

Ebony fretboard, but it has some brown streaks in it that I do not like. There is a wood Oxidizer product that will make the fretboard nice and black, have not decided if I want too use that yet.
It will be a 6 string steel stringed guitar, Dreadnaught size mainly for Flatpicking, but will try my hand at some fingerpicking after I get some practice under my belt.

 

[Heinz]

Sounds good, I love dreadnaughts best.

Will have to do some recording on her when its finished

 

[Screaming Eagle]

looking great buck!

 

[109ROAMING]

Il say ,Dam nice!

 

[Marcel]

Good to get the thread starting, Buck. Promises to be interesting.

 

[evangilder]

Looks good so far. I'd like to hear it when it's all done too.

 

[Bucksnort101]

Thanks for the encouragement and praise. Actually, this part of the project has been pretty simple so far. Sides were prebent, so all I had to do is line everything up, triple check for accuracy and put glue on. Kerking still need to be sanded down to the proper angle and I need to make a sanding board with the correct angles build into it for that task.
Going to try to build some clamps this weekend between outings in the woods with the Muzzleloader for Deer so I hope to have some pics next week of clamps and the soundboard with it's rosettes installed and scraped down to size.

 

[Bucksnort101]

No progress this week. Did not get my clamps or sanding jig sawn out over the weekend as I was busy in the woods all weekend. Hope to get something done a little later in the week, won't be much until I get these doggone clamps built, or break down and buy a bunch of more expensive ones

 

[Bucksnort101]

OK, a little progress. Herringbone and striped Rosettes are glued into the top and scraped down the the level of the soundboard. Outer two rosettes do not mate in the center mark as they will be covered by the neck overhang when it is installed.

 

[Bucksnort101]

Next up is glueig in and shaping the soundboard bracing and tonebars. I have the outline of where each brace/tonebar will be glued on traced onto the bottom of the soundboard. I still need a few more clamps before I can begin this step.

 

[109ROAMING]

Good progress Mate!

looks awesome

 

[Bucksnort101]

Thanks, not really much work done there. Top was already cut to shape and the soundboard was already cut out, I just needed to cut the Rosettes to size and glue in place. Braces were also roughly shaped already so I just need to glue them in the correct positions and do some trimming. The real work starts now. Getting everything lined up and glued properly will take a bit of time. Next update may be a week or two in the future.

 

[evangilder]

Nice work.